review
Juror #2
Overly borrows from 12 Angry Men and never reaches the heights or ambiguity of Anatomy of a Fall.
Reviews
late night reviews and rants about film and other media
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review
Civil War
Essentially a Last of Us-style zombie roadmovie, a genre that is already practically one layer of abstraction away from what this film explores, Civil War is a provocative film, but ultimately too shallow.
review
Monster
Monster, the newest film by one of Japan's finest contemporary directors, is, as always, another treat in the classic Kore-eda social drama style.
review · TIFF
Full River Red
Zhang Yimou has crafted a wide variety of brilliant films ranging from historical and societal dramas to wuxia action thrillers. This is not one of them. What it is, however, is a fun historical whodunnit comedy thriller with strong nationalist undertones.
review
Barbie: Not Actually Kenough
Barbie is brazenly feminist, but it is a white, liberal, gen-X type of feminism that neglects any form of intersectionality or class-analysis.
review · Berlinale
Suzume: Weathering With Your Name
Although a significant improvement over his previous release (the abysmal 2019 Weathering with You), Shinkai is reluctant to deviate from the formula that made Your Name such a success, and I felt that despite all-out nice performances, the film and its emotional payoff is particularly held back by his least memorable protagonist yet.
review
The House on The Slope
Often heart-wrenching and unfortunately timely, The House on The Slope is a limited series that aims higher than the boundaries of the genre, and creates an unforgettable narrative as a result.
review
The President's Cake
Bleak, borderline nihilistic even, the backdrop of the film is more interested in the direct failures of the Saddam regime than offering any substantial critique of the American imperialist structure that had driven the region into desolation and was actively bombing it (presented instead as an always present inevitability); in turn making the film particularly palatable to a western audience that can consume it within the comfort of any ideology without being overly challenged.
review
El Sett
Making a biopic of a pan-Arabic legend, whose rich career spanned over 70 years, while navigating both the personal and the rapid political and socioeconomic developments of Egypt, is no easy feat, and the end result is good; it is touching, entertaining, captivating.
review
Disclosure Day
Spielberg skillfully plays with a lot of genre conventions of both conspiracy spy thrillers and golden age sci fi, making for a fun and visually impressive watch that is unfortunately too often interrupted by naive messaging about the compatibility of religion with the existence of extraterrestrial life, mankind on the brink of WW3 collectivity needing to touch some grass and stare at the universe, and milquetoast statements about not being bigoted I guess.
review
The Drama
Bit clumsy how it navigated the societal issues with the dark comedy but all the elements were there, with some occasional sharp writing, and I like how it's pretty iconoclastic, built around a topic that is still very much a taboo in US discourse even to acknowledge.